A World to Explore

Archive for June 15th, 2010

MITZPE RAMON, ISRAEL — Today we traveled northeast of Mitzpe Ramon to Makhtesh Gadol (“The Large Crater”) to look at some Jurassic fossils in the Matmor Formation. I had to take a few photographs and collect some cool crinoids there, but otherwise it was a kind of busman’s holiday for us. The Matmor Formation preserves a tropical marine fauna with loads of mollusks, echinoderms, brachiopods, sponges and corals. Several sets of Wooster students have worked here, and our friend Yoav still refers to stratigraphic sections by Wooster student names: Jeff, Elyssa, Sophie and Meredith. In fact the most important stratigraphic unit in the Matmor we know as “Meredith-1”. It was a fitting place to end our Wooster 2010 Israel fieldwork.

An abraded high-spired snail in the Matmor Formation (Middle Jurassic). The original skeletal aragonite has been replaced by calcite.

An articulated infaunal bivalve still in place perpendicular to bedding. The dorsal area has been shaved off by erosion on the outcrop.

The Negev Boys on their last field day. From the left, Wooster seniors Micah Risacher and Andrew Retzler, and on the right Stuart Chubb (Birkbeck College, London, graduate student). I am not responsible for the choice of shirts.